Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Digital Showings

Ask any real estate professional if they have sold a house without the buyer having physically seen it and they’ll most likely tell you they have. While it may have been an unconventional sale, it is more prevalent today than it was twenty or even ten years ago.

The digital world of the Internet has changed the process of buying a home. It is evolving as people have become more comfortable with the reliability of the information available.

Getting in a car and driving around all day looking at homes that may or may not fit your needs or wants is not productive for buyers or the agents.

The quality and the quantity of pictures has dramatically improved in the last twenty years. Buyers and agents alike can view a property online and get a fairly accurate idea of the condition and layout of home and whether it warrants a physical visit. Videos can “walk” you through the house to be able to assess if the floorplan will work for you.

The 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports 89% of all buyers cited an online website as an information source with real estate agents being a close second at 87%. 42% of all buyers looked online for properties for sale as the first step taken during the home buying process.

Interestingly, 87% of buyers in 2015 purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker compared to only 68% in 2001. The agent services deemed most valuable to buyers were help finding the right home to purchase (53%) and help to negotiate the terms of sale (12%) and the price (11%).

A challenge for sellers is to understand that the digital showings are a critical part of today’s process. They save time and money for both buyers and sellers and are convenient because they can be done at any time of day and from anywhere. The difficulty is the seller’s feelings of inactivity when they believe their home is being shown frequently.

Agents can share statistics that show a variety of digital activity like number of unique visitors, length of time spent on the listing site as well as the other features that were accessed. 65% of all buyers walked through the home they purchased after they viewed it online.

Highlands Ranch Home Search

Who is Pete Doty

Helping nice folks solve their real estate puzzles in metro Denver, Colorado since 1985. I am still learning new things every day, about the nice folks I work with and the homes they want to buy or sell. Things they want and desire, and how to help them find that perfect home in metro Denver, Colorado. Real Estate was a tough business to enter in the 1980's here with all the foreclosures and HUD homes. Now given the knowledge I have acquired over the years, it is a little easier to give advice, and that is what you want when you are buying or selling a home. And we really love what we do. Give me a call so we can help you. We cover Highlands Ranch, Parker, Lone Tree, Englewood, Denver, Littleton, Cherry Creek Village, Castle Rock, Aurora, Larkspur, Elizabeth, Greenwood Village, Kiowa, Franktown, Sedalia, Morrison, Ken Caryl, Roxborough and Centennial, plus referrals to out of town Realtors.
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